I have 4 airbnb apartments in Auckland. 3 perfoming well. 1 slagging. Quien no llora no mama or who does not cry, he is not breastfeed, or less literally, if you don't cry, you don't get fed. I sent an email. What’s going on? I’m disappointed. What I can do to help. In 48 hours or less, the calendar in the slagging apartment is full. No response, just facts. Like magic… back on track. This situation is not unusual. In my 20 years managing projects and people, I’ve seen this almost every day....
2 days ago • 1 min read
Codie Sanchez once explained that “If you want to know where future fortunes will be made, don’t look at markets; look at rooms” And she continued: “Wealth follows proximity. The closer you are to capital, information, and ambition, the higher your expected return. If compounding is the eighth wonder of the world, proximity is the ninth.” This is probably the best piece of advice I have received in the last 12 months. Economists call it agglomeration, the phenomenon where productivity and...
3 days ago • 1 min read
A couple of weeks ago, someone that I know commented this: “Vicente, I’m sick to death of my job… every Monday I feel like jumping out the window. And what it’s worse… now they want to reduce staff and I don’t know what to do” She wasn’t exaggerating. And from what I understood, it wasn’t the first time she’d said — or thought — something like that. And surely not the last. Built-up exhaustion. Unpaid overtime. A boss who confuses “leading” with being a pain in the ass. And a salary that...
4 days ago • 1 min read
I once read that in one TV show a liberal made a proposal to a communist. “Let’s split the world in two. You keep whatever you want, but let’s separate. You do what you have to do, and we’ll do what we have to do. Then, after ten years, let’s see where each of us stands.” Speechless. Wonderful, isn’t it? Because of these TV shows, it’s been more than 15 years that I don’t have a TV at home. Because, there’s something even more wonderful. And that the “liberal” or the “communist” did not see....
5 days ago • 1 min read
When I was sent to the “world”, I had no “puñet€ra” idea. Not much internet. Navigating with your phone was like hoping to get into the love cam in a Cold Play concert. A lottery. That if you won it… it’d not bring nothing good. Travelling was hard. Complex. No Teams. No nothing. But there I was. In a first meeting, in front of people that doubled my age. To discuss about business, financing… and likely tax evasion. It was my third day on the job. And my third day in PPPs. I would have loved...
6 days ago • 1 min read
I don’t know if you have ever tried to contact Meta’s customer center. Yes… Mark and his guys at Facebook and Co. I have done it… Several times. I run other businesses… and I had no choice. Since the middle ages and their torture chambers, you can’t get a better experience. Not even chat GPT knows the number to call, the mail to write them… or the form. Once that you locate it – and good luck with this – wait and see the level of response. Of course, you tried first to solve your issue...
7 days ago • 1 min read
City councils love PPP. But not as much as their consultants. Inexperience politicians, public service teams with too much on their plate and not keen to sophistication other than excuses for leaving the desk for getting a 2 hours coffee break. With these elements… what can be wrong. And still… all things that they could get done with proper guidance… but that’s for another day. Let’s focus on Macedonia… or Fruit Salad as it’s known in Spanish. Valandovo. The guys wanted to be modern....
8 days ago • 1 min read
They called it “a visionary public-private partnership.” With such a titled and being in Brazil, I could not buy enough popcorns in the supermarket. Spoiler alert. At the end, they were right. It was visionary. But only in one sense: no one else could see it working. The government of Bahia, Brazil, decided to modernize Salvador’s old suburban rail line. Ambition was sky-high… as high as political careers made on the back of public money… although, I’ll let that one for another story… Anyway....
9 days ago • 2 min read
I have an extraordinary client in Panama. She makes good money by working hard as a nurse. She studies a masters. She helps her parents. She has savings. And her finances in good order. Until here, all good. Then, she wants us to build her a home. No problem. Perfect client for us. But then, she goes to see the banks. No debt record. No credit cards. Just a good salary. Good savings. Good lifestyle. Unqualified. Yes. No mortgage. Without a credit rating, lenders are suspicious. First time?...
10 days ago • 1 min read